Urban Design Compendium

Case Study 103 - Facilitating meaningful community engagement

103 - Sellindge Masterplan

A Masterplan for the expansion of Sellindge was needed to inform the Core Strategy and to identify what and where any new development could be built in the village of around 600 homes and how a new village ‘heart’ could be facilitated by this housing growth. The preferred option is for around 250 additional dwellings. The final masterplan proposes that the same land values will be applied across the entire development area, in order to pay for infrastructure costs and community benefits, regardless of location. Slowing down traffic, improving crossing points and the public realm were important elements of the proposals.

A range of interactive community consultation events has been set up to inform residents and stakeholders, get their opinions and to produce various spatial options. These options were tested financially to identify their viability and the amount of residential development required to pay for community facilities and a central open space.

Use of the Village Game to help the community articulate what’s important to them. In order to have meaningful dialogue with the community there had to be a general acceptance that growth offers benefits for residents. Those who attended the sessions and the village game workshop had a better understanding of the relationship between the community benefits and the scale of growth.

The use of a broad representative stakeholder group (village team) provided a practical number of people to work with in a meaningful way. It allowed tapping into their social networks and use their village grapevine. Meetings were had with the various landowners involved to get their views and ambitions and take these into account where possible to assist with deliverability.